Chapter 33: Pain

Tsunade knows that the next big moment to happen will be Pain attacking the village. She has been upping the drills run in town on the shinobi, and has been working with the barrier corps to have different defensive strategies ready. Jiraiya had also come to her requesting to go an infiltrate the Rain village, but Tsunade ordered him to take Naruto to Mount Myōboku instead for sage training. Naruto's leaving earlier this time than in the story, but will be back and forth to the village more so. As a cover, Tsunade told Jiraiya she was sending a specialist to infiltrate the Rain Village, and she 'sent' me. I'm not actually going to the Rain at all, instead I'm going to be monitoring the outside of the village and just spending the next little bit of time training and preparing for the Pain attack.News got spread around that Sasuke killed Orochimaru and is forming his own team. I was oddly a little bitter that the credit wasn't going to me, but I didn't care that much at the end of the day. I told Tsunade and Kakashi about the hawk I received right after I got it, so they at least know what's up. Sasuke hasn't sent anything more, but I don't expect to hear from him until after Itachi dies.1Tsunade had ordered for a large specialist team to go around and find Itachi. She offered for me to join them, but I advised against going at all. Unfortunately, the plan had already been put into motion when she offered, so I just opted out. I knew this was the mission when Naruto and our friend will try to find Itachi but will just run into Sasuke. They will fail, and Sasuke will fight with Itachi. Unfortunately, Itachi will die soon from his illness, I think he's just waiting for Sasuke to fight him. I gave Kakashi a warning he might run into Obito on the mission, and I left it to him on how he wants to handle that.Naruto sought me out after he came back from the failed mission. "Ami... I saw him. I saw Sasuke, but I failed. I couldn't bring him home." He tells me sadly as I am home for a short 'break from my mission'."Naruto, he still has something he needs to accomplish. He can't see a way out of his darkness until he finishes his mission. Until he kills Itachi." I say truthfully and sadly to him. "For now, all we can do as his friends is train ourselves to be ready to stand by his side when he returns. I think... I feel like he will come back on his own, when he's ready. When he's not lost. He might need you to smack him around a little to stop brooding and come home earlier, but you'll do fine at that when you see him again." I compliment him as he grins at me."I saw Kabuto, too. He's gone sort of crazy. That arm you chopped off? He replaced it with Orochimaru's arm. He gave us intelligence on the Akatsuki, but I just don't know what his goal is at all." Naruto complains in confusion.3"Great..." I say sarcastically. "Just can't win with that guy." I grumble out. He stays and chats a little longer before he has to head back to his training with Jiraiya at the toad land.I set up to meet with Kakashi outside of the village, getting an update on how his part of the mission went with his old friend. "How did it go? Did you see Obito?" I ask him once we are relaxing privately by a waterfall."I did." He says grimly, then sighs. "He was completely unrecognizable. There was no semblance of Obito in him anywhere. I... I tried to talk to him. Without telling him I knew though, it was hard. I tried to relate, and understand him, but I just couldn't.""You didn't tell him you knew?" I ask curiously. "I really didn't know which way you would go with that.""I didn't either. It just didn't feel like the right time to reveal we knew." He admits. "Though you should know, he asked about you. He thought Hinata was you at first until someone called her name, but Obito was looking for you, Ami. I think he knows who's been killing off his Akatsuki members." He warns me seriously."Oh goody, I'm famous again. And not just as the White Reaper." I deadpan and he hums in agreement. "What did he ask?""He wanted to meet the Hyuga woman who was throwing off his plans. He didn't necessarily say he wanted to kill you, he seemed more... greedy. I think he wanted to recruit you." He shrugs out."Eh, that was one of my potential plans early on." I say casually and his eye narrow suspiciously. "I had a lot of time to come up with plans. I figured I could do some good as an inside member of the Akatsuki, but ultimately I chose to stay here and live a little bit of a better life while I save lives. Call me lazy, but I didn't want to spend years on the run being a rogue." I grin at him lazily."You spend too much time with Shikamaru." He sighs out. "I have to balance out the time I spend with Kiba, Lee and Sensei. Neji and Shika help keep me sane." I chuckle lightly and he joins in quietly. We chat a bit more before he heads back to the village. I resume my training and surveillance, occasionally going back home for visits. I'm only practicing right outside of the village while Jiraiya and Naruto are in the mountains.Haitaka came and visited me a few days after the others returned from their Sasuke mission. He came bearing news from my friend, stating that he fought Itachi but that his brother died of his illness. Sasuke said he finally got to have a heart to heart with Itachi before he passed. He also said that someone claiming to be Madara Uchiha saved him after the fight and told him similar truths as what I did, again stating that Itachi was a tool and Danzo was the problem. Sasuke and his Taka team have joined the Akatsuki on a preliminary basis and were tasked with capturing the eight-tails jinchuriki. I sent the hawk back with a plan for him, a plan to have him fight and talk to the eight-tails and send him to a secret location where I will meet with him to explain. I suggested he convince Killer Bee to leave behind a clone or something to make his escape look convincing, and to also buy him time to get to safety. It's risky, but similar to what happened in the show so it should work again.Sasuke had just sent back his message stating that the fight went as well as could be expected, and that Killer Bee was uncooperative to listening, but that he gave him the message and left with a clone. I had suggested he send Killer Bee to the Hot Springs Village since it is in between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, plus it is on the way to the Land of Iron, where the Five Kage Summit will be held. Hopefully, I will be able to head out to meet the Raikage there soon. That hope, however, was dashed the next day after I sent the messege.I was outside the village, still off on my 'secret mission' but really keeping my eyes out for the Pain attack when I spotted them. I was still close enough to the village that I could transport myself to the Hokage's office, and I did just that the moment I spotted them."Lady Tsunade, Pain is here now." I say urgently and firmly once I get to her office, which is thankfully empty. "They are close to infiltrating the village. Are all the pieces in place?""Yes. I'll ready the barrier corps immediately. Shizune!" She calls out loudly and her assistant comes running in. "Evacuate all civilians to the mountain bunkers, immediately!" She orders and Shizune panics before going off and beginning the evacuation. Tsunade summons the messenger toad that Jiraiya left behind to communicate with him while he and Naruto are gone. "Bring Jiraiya and Naruto back immediately, they're needed here now." She orders, and the toad disappears. "Ami. Get your team into position." She orders of me and I vanish.I appear at Neji's side, slightly startling him. "Ami! Stop doing that." He yells out at me, always hating when I randomly appear.2"Neji, the village is about to be under attack. It's Pain of the Akatsuki. Where are Guy and Lee?" I ask urgently, and he immediately goes into serious mode."On a race, they'll be here any second." Neji says, then not even 10 seconds later those two appear. I relay the information of what we know right as a huge explosion is heard and several large summoning animals are spotted appearing all over the village. We all move out towards the source of the explosion. Parts of the village has been secretly preparing for this attack, and Team Guy is one of the front runners for handling certain Pain's. This is all thanks to the 'intel' that Tsunade's 'spy' received."Neji, you're with me to take down the Animal Path Pain. Sensei,Lee, find the Preta Path Pain, that's your target." I remind them as Neji and I head towards the summoner Pain. We find the animal Pain quickly, she's surrounded by a dozen huge summoning animals."Ami, start taking out those animals, I'll get the summoner." Neji calls out and I nod. Taking down large summoning animals has become a specialty of mine thanks to Orochimaru. I separate from my brother and jump up to a nearby high building and take out my bow. I load up a scatter shot attack with multiple arrows, infusing each a strong wind attack. I send them out, and take down three of the summonings with the one attack. I switch out my bow to my scythe after spotting two animals by the creek, and set about using water style infused in my scythe to take them down. Choji and Sai join my side after I've taken down five of the large animals."Ami, we're here to help." Choji calls out as we move on to the next one together. I can see Neji fighting the Animal Path Pain not too far away, and he's doing fine against her, though I can see the animals moving in to surround him."We have to keep those animals off of Neji while he fights!" I order out to my two friends. We head to his location while the smaller animals do the same. I store the scythe on my back, and use Gentle Fist to sever the chakra connections on the summoning animals. It's a theory that Shikamaru planned for us, that once we cut the chakra binding the animals to their summoner that they will revert back to their home. As I used Gentle Fist on the first centipede monster, it vanished after only a few hits. "It's working, Neji! Sever the connections!" I call out to my twin, and he calls back to confirm he heard it. He is working to block all of the Animal Path Pain's chakra points, which once complete should make all the animals disappear, which is why he was sent to fight her. He has the best precision and control in a one-on-one fight for targeting chakra points."Ami, you stay here and guard Neji, we are going after the bigger animals." Sai says, indicating towards himself and Choji."No need!" Neji calls out with a smirk. We turn and see him landing a final hit on his Pain, and suddenly all the animals disappear. The Pain goes down and crumbles, no longer able to move at all."Nice!" I call out proudly, high fiving my brother after I jump to him. "Let's go help out the others." I say, right after we got a notice from Inoichi in our minds that help is needed elsewhere.~ Lee POV at start of attack ~"Neji, you're with me to take down the Animal Path Pain. Sensei, Lee, find the Preta Path Pain, that's your target." Ami calls out to us before we all separate."Lee, Guy. This is Inoichi from the Intelligence corps. The Preta Path Pain has been spotted in the Central district absorbing chakra and is currently engaged in battle. Head out to that location." I hear inside of my head. I nod to Guy Sensei and we move out, arriving just in time to block an attack from the Pain."Dynamic Entry!" We call out as we save our comrades from further harm, entering the fight."This guy absorbs all our ninjutsu attacks, nothing works against him." A fellow shinobi warns us."Then it's a good thing we only use Taijutsu." I say proudly. Sensei and I move in for our attacks. Our opponent is truly a worthy adversary, his defense is immensely strong."Lee, open the 5th gate with me!" Sensei calls out to me, and I know this must be serious. I open the gates quickly, feeling the overwhelming power surge through my body. Sensei and I work together to take on the opponent again, this time he is no match for our youthful power. We trade blows with him for several minutes before Sensei has me back away, him going in for a final attack after he opens his 6th gate. I stand back and watch the awesome might of Sensei as he completely destroys the Pain guy in an impressive display."You guys did it! That was amazing! I'll report this to Intelligence right away." Our fellow shinobi calls out to us before he departs."Lee. Help is needed in facing the Asura Path, you are the closest who would be best suited to help." Inoichi says in our minds again."My Sakura is there!" I shout out in a panic. "I cannot let her be attacked, I must go ahead, Sensei." I tell him before leaving to my beautiful Sakura blossom.~ Sakura POV at start of attack ~"Sakura, this is Inoichi. The village is under attack from Pain. You are needed over in the Southeast sector. The Asura Path Pain is located there, and it fights like a Puppet. You have the most experience available currently, join the team fighting it there." Inoichi says in my head after the explosions signaling the start of the invasion happened. I head out at once, wondering what help I can offer. When I fought Sasori, it was mostly Lee and Neji who fought, not me. I only joined in with the help of Lady Chiyo at moments."Sakura, watch out!" I hear from above me, and look up and see Tenten blocking an incoming missile by throwing a huge shuriken to throw it off its path towards me. "This Pain is a weapons specialist, though he's using weapons I've never seen before." Tenten says, then smirks. "Doesn't matter though, I'll show him what Konoha's weapon's specialists can do." She says proudly."I've been told he fights like a puppet." I say, observing the multiple arms that are detaching and weapons coming out of them. It does remind me of Sasori. "Ok, he isn't really human anymore, so be prepared for weapons to come out any part of him, don't be complacent and think he will only use two arms. His defenses will be great and reflexes very quick. We will need to overwhelm him in order to find an opening." I order out, taking a fighting stance next to Tenten. There a few other Chuunin with us as well, each of them drawing weapons while I put on my gloves, preparing to fight."Let's go!" Tenten calls out, and opens her huge scroll and starts to summon countless weapons and launching them all at Pain. Pain is sending out more missiles in every direction, so I punch through the ground, lifting up a slab to block the explosions from hitting me and a few other Chuunin. I drop the slab and look for an opening, finding it while Tenten is launching her next attack."Cha!" I yell out, throwing a full power punch into the back of the Pain, causing cracks to form all over him as I send him flying hard into the ground. "No..." I say in defeat, seeing the Pain getting back up after taking a full hit from me. He changes his target and starts to fight me instead of Tenten. I dodge the best I can, but he is so much faster than I am."Send a call out for backup!" I hear one of the Chuunin call out, another leaving to contact Intelligence. "We have to hold him off for now, he's causing the most destruction in the village with his missiles.""Right!" Tenten and I call out, and we synchronize for another attack. We work in tandem, her distracting and me landing hits when I can, but Pain's overwhelming us. Right as he is about to land a full stream of missiles at me and I don't have time to react, I'm saved by Lee."The lotus flower blooms twice. I am Rock Lee, and I will always protect my beautiful Sakura blossom from attacks." Lee says proudly as he kicks all the missiles away. "Your opponent is me now. Prepare to lose." He takes a fighting stance, and goes in for the strike.Lee takes over the fight from there, his speed and strength overpowering the half broken puppet. I look for an opening to work with him, and power up a punch and jump in and smash the Pain at the same time Lee kicks it. Together, we break the Pain in half, destroying it."Lee!" I call out to him happily, "You came." I say softly.2"Sakura, I will always come when you need me to." Lee says, striking his dumb 'nice guy' pose. 1Today though, his pose doesn't look dumb, and Lee looks like a hero. I smile at him as we take a moment to breath after the fight. Before long can pass though, I'm called to the hospital to help in aiding the injured. Katsuyu's body had been spread out at the beginning of the assault, Lady Tsunade calling her in to help aid everyone out in the village. Thankfully, over half the civilians had already made it to safety before the attack even began.~ Ibiki POV at start of attack ~"Ibiki." Tsunade says when I enter the Hokage tower. "The fight has begun. There is a Pain, the Human Path Pain, who is interrogating the shinobi and killing them. Take your squad to the East side of the village where he is and end him." She orders of me, and I depart with my team at once."You think you can come to my village and interrogate my ninja?" I ask the Human Path Pain when we make it to him. "I handle the interrogations here." I say darkly."Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" Pain asks me, turning to face me. "Your answers shall be judged by God.""I don't care about your god." I dismiss him, and we all a take a battle stance. "I am your god now. Summoning Jutsu, Mind Torture Chamber." I say, summoning my unique mental torture chamber. Our intelligence states that these Pains are corpses, and therefore feel no physical pain, so instead I will be attacking his mind."You think you know pain. You know nothing of pain." Pain says after several minutes of the chamber delving into his mind. He should be in blinding pain by now, but instead he seems fine. "I know all about pain. Your methods are weak." He insults me.I smirk at him. This chamber was purely a distraction. The chamber disappears when my team go in for the physical attack while his mind was trapped. The team takes care of immobilizing the Pain. He wasn't particularly strong, his skill mostly relied on his mind reading."Tear him to pieces." I order, and they follow through, starting to rip his limbs off. I advance in to take off his head. "You lose.""You were prepared for me. How?" Pain demands before I pull his head off. I just smirk at him and rip his head off, not bothering to answer him."Guard the body pieces, do not let anything take them away." I order my team. "Report to intelligence immediately."~ Kakashi POV at start of attack ~It's just like Ami said it would be, the Pain's are all over the place causing havoc. But only three of them are seen, meaning the other three are going around quietly getting information. I need to find those ones, and have faith that Ami's and Tsunade's plans are working in taking down the others. I summon Pakkun, and order him to find the nearest Pain. He leads me to the North of the village, where I find the Deva Path Pain, identifiable by his piercings."Kakashi Hatake. Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" Pain asks me monotonously, turning to face me as I arrive."You picked the wrong village to attack. You will be defeated here, Pain." I inform him, forming a Raikiri attack. I go in for an attack, but he just pushes me away with his jutsu. Ami mentioned there is an interval, but she didn't know how long it was. While I'm knocked down in the rubble, I make three extra clones. I will fight in succession, and figure out just how long the intervals between attacks are. They each go in at different times, and I discover the interval is five seconds."It seems you were informed of my arrival before I came. You were prepared. How is this?" Pain asks blandly, though he is frowning slightly."I'm not telling you." I go in to attack again, this time trying to target the interval gap. However, a second Pain appeared. I don't know which one it is. They're eyes are connected, so I no longer have a chance to use blind spots while both are here. I need backup."Kakashi, this is Inoichi. I have dispatched for backup and they are on their way to your location. The Pains you are fighting are the Deva Path and the Naraka Path. Do not let the Naraka Path get its hands on you, keep your distance until backup arrives." Inoichi says in my mind after a couple of minutes of fighting. I just sigh, it's taking all my efforts just to keep my distance at all.Several Jonin come to join me within a minute of Inoichi's contact. I'm exhausted, I used the Raikiri too many times and can barely move. The two Pain's are fighting together and going through the entire squad that arrived, defeating them easily. Where is Naruto? He should have been summoned by now."Seems like you really can't move now." Pain says after defeating all the Jonin, turning to me from where I sit, unable to move a muscle. "And you're not a clone, either. Just in case, I will keep my distance." He uses his pull ability to take a nail out of a loose board from beneath his feet, holding it between his fingers. "You will know Pain."I can't dodge from this distance, I can't even move. My eyes widen as I see the nail flying straight at me, but in a flash, a body is in front of me, and the nail gets blocked by a weapon.A scythe. Ami made it in time to save me.